The Almanac of Algrim Shadowstep
This is Algrim Shadowstep's personal account of the adventures so far. Events portrayed in this almanac may not necessarily be factually accurate. If you notice an inaccuracy, politely message Motercycle man and ask him to fix it. The Endless Winter At the point at which I joined the Harken Eagles, I had been searching for Thofire Silvertouch for six months. I had gone to Greenhills, but, after some scouting of the town, saw that he was not there. I felt as if my whole mission was in vain, when, in a tavern, I heard of some adventurers that had been plaguing the Iron Circle and its leader, Redthorn. Feeling as if this was my best bet, I decided to set off for Harkon. When I finally arrived, Redthorn and the Iron Circle had already been disposed off. When I asked locals about the adventurers, they told me that there was indeed a halfling in the party. When I asked how to recognise the party, they simply laughed and told me that I couldn't miss it. They also told me that the party was staying at the Silver Nail. One man I asked started to say something about the halfling, but decided better of it. I thought nothing of it at the time. When darkness fell, I finally caught sight of the party, and understood why they were so recognisable; a half-orc, a human, two dwarves and a tall figure who I couldn't quite catch sight of. Worringly though, there was no halfling. I approached the party, and asked them whether Thofire Silvertouch was in their party. The human answered me first, and said that he was dead. I was saddened; despite my intentions, one of the assassins had got to him. But one question remained: Who had killed him? Hush? Nyssa? Daud? Adewale? At my question, the tall figure came towards me and told me that Redthorn himself had killed him. I hissed, though not at the news, but at the figure; he was an eladrin. Although I had been brought up to respect the other species, my experiences had proven that the elves, eladrin and (To a lesser extent) half-elves were not worthy of my respect. They still blamed us for the war between our races. Then I realised: he was Thofire's partner, the co-captain on the Windstrider. I informed him (Admittedly not without some pleasure) that he was also targeted by the assassins. By now, I wanted to take care of the assassins left, and kill the unknown Darkeyes child that funded them, and I realised that sticking with this makeshift party would probably allow me to achieve this goal quicker. As we walked to the inn where they were staying, they introduced themselves to me; the half-orc paladin was Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, the human ranger was Meredith DeLang, the dwarven fighter was Orklan Boarhide, the dwarven cleric was Magni Bronzebeard, and the eladrin (Who turned out to be a mage - who would give such power to an eladrin) called himself Eraamion Firaal. At the inn, the eladrin announced that he would take up Thofire's suggestion to be leader of the "Harken Eagles" (Why they're called that, I have no idea), and named Orklan as his second-in-command. The others then went to their beds, while the eladrin and I tranced (Not together, of course - I tranced as far away from the eladrin as possible). When we awoke, the party went to Baron Stockmer for some rewards. Although the air was slightly nippy, the celebrations were going ahead as planned. The baron tried to knight all of the party, even though some hadn't done anything in the liberation of Harkenwold. Meredith, Ghazghkull and the eladrin accepted. Orklan decided that he was far too simple for titles, and the other dwarf thought it unfit for it to be given to him. I, however, refused the title outright; I have no time for worthless titles. We then followed the baron into his castle. Even though I had done nothing to help me, he still gave me 125 gold pieces, while giving various other rewards to the rest of the party (I wasn't really paying attention; I wanted to get out of the town sooner rather than later). He then informed us that it was time for the funeral of the party's previous cleric, apparently named Jedcit Proudspark (Why did they suddenly switch from joyous celebration to morose funeral?). At a small graveyard, the clerics of the temple had prepared a nine-foot grave for the half-elf. Magni said a few words to Erathis when the body was being lowered in (I was shocked; I know that Jedcit worshipped the god of civilisation, but having a funeral without even a quick blessing to the Raven Queen?). After the funeral, we finally left the town, though not before Magni blessed Thofire's body, protecting it from rot (A good idea). We left to the sound of cheering peasants, and arrived in Albridge to that same sound. Thankfully, nobody approached us but for a small couple, who asked us to guard the boats of the Turnfin Halflings when we got to Fallcrest. They seemed to be honest, and (Since I needed the money and had grown rather warm to halflings while on the surface) I accepted. The eladrin also accepted, though I suspect that he wanted to keep a close eye on me. None of the other party members seemed very enthusiastic about it, even though it would take us closer to Greenhills (Where Thofire was to be buried). We continued onwards. The air gradually got even colder, and the rain kept on coming down. Meredith told all of us that this was unlikely to be natural weather, but we continued trekking until nightfall (Though I can see perfectly in the dark, my compatriots don't have that gift). Only three members of our party had a tent (Meredith, Orklan and the eladrin). Meredith set her tent up easily, while the eladrin managed to get his caught in a tree and Orklan had to trek into the forest before finding it. Orklan managed to put his one up, though the eladrin needed some help from Meredith (Of course he did). Meredith wanted some privacy, so Ghazghkull decided to sleep outside. Unsurprisingly, the two dwarves shared a tent. Unfortunately, this left me with the eladrin. We argued long into the night; he seemed to blame my entire race not only for the ancient war, but also because of one drow who had killed his family. We argued until roughly midnight, at which point we tranced, not coming to any agreement at all. In the morning, snow completely covered the ground around our tents. The eladrin did some nifty spell to evaporate a small amount of snow, which was utterly useless. The donkeys, left outside for the whole night, were extremely weak. Although both Meredith and Magni tried to get them back to strength, they were too weak for us to ride on them. We pushed on, the snow and wind coming and going irregularly. We got see some columns of smoke where Fallcrest was (Roughly), so knew we were heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, on the way there, I felt significantly weakened by the snowstorm (I distinctly saw the eladrin snigger when he saw my strife). Two of the donkeys had succumbed to the snow, and collapsed. Although I volunteered to put one down (What's the point in keeping tools past their usefulness?), Meredith was strongly against the idea, so we had to put them on a cart, slowing us down even more. When we arrived at the town, it seemed completely deserted, except for a small gathering of tents around a campfire. Orklan asked me to see whether or not the people were foes. I sneaked forwards, keeping to the shadows, only to find that it was some citizens. We walked on, and saw members of the town watch filling a warehouse with barrels and crates. One of the guards told us to move on, and that the food was being rationed. We headed to the Lord Warden's Longhouse, but it too was deserted. We left the donkeys there and Meredith set a fire for them. We then went over to the camp. Although when I had made my (Stealthily) way over there, the camp seemed quiet, it was now almost a riot. The Lord Warden was trying to calm the people, who parted to let us get to him. The others told him of their success in Harkenwold, and he replied that he was rebuilding the Tower of Waiting, a fort located on an island, as a reward. However, this winter had stopped the rebuilding efforts. A merchant named Armos Kamroth then shouted out that the Lord Warden's response to the crisis was wrong, and that it should be every man to himself. The Lord Warden furiously argued against him, saying that the poor would have no chance of survival. This caused Armos and the rest of the crowd to erupt into argument. This got on my nerves even more than the eladrin, and I roared for quiet. Thankfully, the crowd quietened. I didn't have anything to say (In my profession, I usually don't come across crowds very often), so simply glowered at them, waiting to see who would make the first moves. It seemed like the merchants were making an alliance with some human and halfling mercenaries against the farmers. A cleric of Pelor and one of Erathis both tried to clamour for prayers specific to their deities. Suddenly, the merchants, drawing their swords, charged the farmers, who only had pitchforks and other such tools to defend themselves with. I roared for peace, and the fighting stopped. In the following silence, we heard a deep chanting. It sounded like a sea shanty, but slowly gained a much more warlike quality. An ancient ship then started to descend from the sky. Screaming, the crowd fled as the boat landed by the river. Undead monstrosities jumped out, and started chasing the people of Fallcrest, eager to cut them down. It was time for my first fight alongside the Harken Eagles. Category:Character Backstories